THE WORDS OF SUBEDAI
An ongoing monologue about the trials and tribulations of life in general, being an avid reader, figure painter, terrain modeller, part time wargamer -with a rather scary fixation for the Mongols- part time rule writer, aspiring writer and photographer, very amateur artist and being a follower of both West Ham United and Sittingbourne FC...ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Monday, 13 January 2014

Some Background Material

I thought it might be an idea
that instead of just giving you pictures and some notes on heraldry, it might
be a good idea for a brief synopsis of the Mongol campaign in Poland in 1241.

Once the
campaign in the Russian Principalities had drawn to a successful conclusion the
Mongols turned their eyes towards the main object of the campaign which was the
conquest of Europe. While a large proportion of the army was to cross the
Carpathian Mountains from a number of different directions and invade Hungary,
a smaller force of two tümet was to head
northwest, alongside the mountains, and into Poland to stop the various Polish
armies from interfering with the main Mongol invasion force.

Note: I have
used the more Anglicised spelling of the various names for the sake of convenience.

Three royal
princes, namely Kadan, Baidar and Orda and grandsons of Chinggis Khan, were
chosen to perform this task. They rode through Red Ruthenia and into the
southeast of the country via Lesser Poland burning and pillaging as they went
to draw attention to themselves. Poland, which at the time was divided into a
number of duchies, all ruled by members of the same Piast family, was slow to
respond, Lublin was taken and the province of Sandomir was mostly ravaged before
any real resistance could be begun. The Mongols then split their forces to try and
to create as much trouble as they could, Kadan riding north towards Warsaw and
Masovia while the other two headed south westwards in the direction of Krakow
and Silesia.

There was a
battle at Chmielnik in Sandomir on 18th March between Baidar and Orda
and a local force which resulted in an overwhelming Mongol victory. From there
the two headed for Krakow. They destroyed most of that city before moving onto
Wroclaw where they had agreed to meet with Kadan. He had not long defeated a
Polish army at Tarczak on 19th March when he received a message from
the others saying that a Polish army was forming at Liegnitz and that another, reputed
to be 50,000 strong, was marching to join it. Kadan set off and the two Mongol tümen
were reunited at Wroclaw on 1st April.

Unaware that
the reinforcing army was not too far away, Duke Henry II of Silesia with his
army rode out of Liegnitz and rode to a plain southeast of the town where he was
utterly destroyed by the Mongols.

Their work
complete, with no remaining force in Poland capable of disrupting the plans,
the three returned to the main army.

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Subedai (aka Mick Sayce)

Apparently I'm a grumpy old man who spends too much time on the computer, reading, watching football -especially West Ham United- and painting 'toy' soldiers.(Pearls of Wisdom from the other half).
P.S. Photo of moi was taken by the OH at El Jem, an incredibly atmospheric, ruined Roman amphitheatre in Tunisia.